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Dopey Dildock

Dear Word Detective: I referred to someone as “dopey dilldock” the other day, and my wife said her mother used the same expression. Any ideas on the origin of this one? — Charles.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when the odd sayings of our parents we perceive, or something like that. Tracking down “dopey dilldock” turned into an all-day endeavor for me.

I started with the assumption that “dopey dilldock” means “a stupid person,” which seems reasonable given the usual meaning of “dopey” (originally “appearing to be under the influence of dope” i.e., drugs). In searching online for the word “dilldock” (or “dildock”), I came across several references to a 1918 movie called “A Perfect 36,” starring Mabel Norman. Interestingly, in the film the actor Rod La Rocque played a character named “O.P. Dildock.” Hey, it rhymes with “dopey dilldock”! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a plot synopsis, so whether La Rocque played a doofus remains a mystery.

Fortunately, this dead end was quickly superseded by a live hit in the form of a citation for an obscure newspaper comic strip of the 1930s called, bingo, “Dopey Dildock.” And when I say “obscure,” I mean “virtually unknown.” The only reason it hasn’t entirely disappeared down the memory hole is that it was an early effort by the cartoonist Gus Edson, who went on to create “Dondi,” an enormously (and inexplicably, in my opinion) popular strip about an Italian war orphan adopted by an American GI (who apparently never noticed that the kid’s eyes were just big black dots).

But while Edson’s later efforts were highly successful, it seems unlikely that “Dopey Dildock” could have become a popular catchphrase based on an obscure 1930s comic strip. Indeed, Edson obviously chose that name for the strip because the phrase “Dopey Dildock” was already popular, and had been for decades.

“Dopey Dildock” dates back to at least the first years of the 20th century and possibly earlier. There are various theories about the phrase, but the most plausible, to me, appeared in an article in the journal American Speech in 1981. Etymologist Henry Stern suggested that “dildock” might be rooted in the German dialect word “dildap” or “diltap,” meaning “a silly, foolish, inept person” (the “dil” coming from the same root that gave us the English “dull”). Stern also ventured that the term arrived in the US with German immigrants, which would explain why it is unknown in England but apparently was common at one time in areas of the US with a strong German heritage.

In any case, the alliterative (and slightly redundant) form “dopey dildock” was evidently still popular in the US in the 1950s, and “dildock” is still seen used as an insult on the internet.

Oppodeldoc was an ointment compounded by Paracelsus, and was used as a medicine into the 18th century. From the Wikipedia, “The name Old Opodeldoc was formerly used as a standard name for a stock character who was a physician, especially when played as a comic figure. Edgar Allan Poe used “Oppodeldoc” as a pseudonym for a character in the short story “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.” Perhaps the use of a comic (perhaps dopey) character with the name Old Oppodeldoc was corrupted to “Dopey Dilldock”

My Aunt Rosemary used to use that phrase when I was growing up in the 50’s. For some reason it comes to mind now and then. This morning I was speaking of the phrase to my husband, telling him I would ‘Google it’ to see where it originated…I was certain it came over from Ireland, since my Aunt’s parents were from there. I didn’t know it was in a comic strip. I had forgotten all about Dondi!!!

I read this post and was reminded of a recent game of Balderdash I played where ‘dildock’ was the word. I just thought I’d share the definition the game gives. According to them, a dildock is a person who uses a marked deck of cards in gambling.

WOW, Dondi!I remember him too.
One, Dondi and Annie would have children without eyes and that is OK. Look at Annie, on Broadway and all.
Two, Daddy Warbucks could never stop Dondi. Those Italian boys, when Annie hooks up with him it is all over!

My parents, born 1908 and 1919 in NYC, would often use the expression Dopey Dildock when they did something stupid. I just thought of it and looked it up, never expecting it was real. How wondrous is that?

Parents born in the 1910s. NJ-NY area. Used that term in 50-60s. Don’t recall ever using myself. The internet is indeed a wondrous tool. It renders one whose brain can retain numerous triva—well, trivial.

When I was a kid, listening to radio in my room circa 1949-1951, I listened to a show called “Can you top this” where a panel of guys told jokes, many sent in by listeners. I remember a recurring name in the jokes, and it was Dopey Dilldock. He would always be the simpleton in the jokes with, of course, the funny lines. The name itself sounded funny, as–inexplicably now–much of the humor of that time was to me then.

Aha! I’ve been trying to think where I’d heard it and was fairly sure it was from an old radio show, but couldn’t remember which one. That was a great show. The three guys were given a topic and had to come up with an example. Thanks, Wayne.

My Mom, born in 1916 in Jersey City-NJ in a neigborhood of all Irish descent, always used the term “dopey dildock” when we did something stupid. This was interchangeable with another saying “you big gom”. I wasn’t a big Dondi fan nor of Little Orphan Annie either but I loved when Chuck McCann on his Sunday morning TV show would read those comics to us while dressed as the character.

My parents, New Yorkers born in 1902 and 1906, also used the expression “Dopey Dildock,” usually referring to me when I did something knuckleheaded. I, too, heard in on “Can You Top This?” I believe the panelist who used this character was Senator Ford.

My dad did a drawing of “Dopey Dilldock” in the 1930’s or ’40’s and he said that he won the Tribune award for his drawing. My dad’s name is Clarence N. Burke Sr. He is the father of the singing group, “The Five Stairsteps”. OoH Child

Thank you everyone who responded to the inquiry on Dopey Dilldock. The internet can be a wonderful tool. My Mom (born 1915) used this and many other expressions that as kids we took for granted. She would love to have read your comments.

I’m not sure but I think I remember my Grandma Digel (b.1890-d.1986) saying “that’s when we knew Uncle Forest had gotten into the O. P. Dildock (or O.B. Dildock?). I thought she meant he had been drinking, maybe some “medicinal” tonic that had some alcohol in it, like old cough syrups used to. Anybody ever hear of anything like that?

In addition to the mention of the comics character, Dopey Dilldock, and Opie Dildock, I’ve also found that “O.P. Dildock” was the pen name (nom de plume) for C.W. Jay, an “intellectual” farmer (b.1815 in N.J.) who naturally morphed into an editor and a popular public speaker.

So, for now I’m thinking I must have misunderstood my Grandma, or maybe her reference was really obscure. It is nice to know other people like to hunt for meanings of words too! The internet expedites the process quite a lot. Thanks for being here.

Me mum , born in 1920 in the Bronx used this the term ” dopey dilldock” when she referred to someone not so bright. Both her parents were of German descent . thanks for posting this trivial history of the term. Ilar

Mt great-grandmother, her daughter (my grandmother), & likely others down the line/in the family used the term “Dopey Dildocks/Dildox” with the same intention others have stated. Great grandma: born 1908(?), German descent, from Astoria Queens & then Long Island (Nassau County), married to an man of Irish descent originally from Jamaica, Queens who was older. I never met him so who knows which family member it originated with but I remember her saying it & probably passed it to my grandmother & others.

My mother born in 1913 and my father born 1912 and both born and raised in North Jersey (and of English/Irish descent) regularly used the term as do I still (born 1949). I was given to understand that it came from a comic strip in the Sunday funnies, but it appears to be from even earlier times.

My grandmother (1st generation German-American) born in NYC and grandfather (English/Italian) immigrated from England to NYC in 1917. They met in NYC in 1920’s. Both used this term, as did my dad. I was thinking about it on the ride in to work and decided to Google it. Amazing how regional (NYC) this seems to be … and a lot of German heritage listed above.

My dad used the term dopey dilldock. He was born in 1919 and was of German heritage, growing up in a German area of Milwaukee. I looked it up because I just called my dog that (those phrases I grew up with pop out of my mouth at the weirdest times) and then got curious as to where it originated.

The obscure 1930s comic strip is not the source. There was an older strip by F.W. Howarth as early as 1908, titled “Old Opie Dilldock’s Stories”. The main character was an old man who told tall tales of his youthful exploits. Howarth had several other popular strips in that decade.

Howarth died in October, 1908. After a gap of two or three sundays, the strip continued but with the artist uncredited. The Trib carried it into mid 1913 at least.

In the 1910s the term “Opie Dilldock” entered the american vocabulary, perhaps briefly, as a term for a teller of tall tales. A search of the Library of Congress online newspapers brings up a handful of uses with that meaning. It is plausible that the 1918 movie character got his name in this way.

I don’t get any hits in the Library of Congress newspapers for “Dopey Dilldock”, nor for “Dopie Dilldock”. Ditto for the Tribune and the google new archives. Thus it seems more plausible that Howarth’s strip originated the term, and that it eventually evolved into Dopey, than to jump to the conclusion that Edson converted Dopey to O.P., without finding any contemporary use of Dopey to support that claim.

My dad was notorious for messing up song lyrics and mishearing foreign words, so who knows how the original verse went or where it came from. One odd fact: pennyroyal was used in folk medicine, and one of its uses was to induce abortions. Hmmm.

I remember my parents and especially my Grandparents (the Italian ones) using the Dopey Dilldock expression referring either to themselves or one of us kids when we screwed up (late 50’s early 60s in Brooklyn) I looked this up because I just came across a book of old comics that includes a strip called “Old Opie Dilldock’s Stories”

My parents (both now deceased) were both born in the late 1920s and both grew up in northern New Jersey. My mother ALWAYS used Dopey Dilldock when referring to someone she considered to be a bonehead. It really seems to have been a regional thing.
Oh, and I remember Dondi very well! I will be 61 in April.